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20 Jul 2005 : Column 1719W—continued

Out-of-hours GP Services

12. Mr. Dunne: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what discussions he has had with National Assembly for Wales Secretaries on the cross-border implications of improvements to the out-of-hours GP services available in Wales. [12337]

Nick Ainger: I regularly meet with the Health Minister and we discuss a range of health issues.

Local Health Boards are monitoring the performance of providers and look for continual performance improvement. In addition, the Assembly also undertakes performance monitoring against the agreed quality standards.

Cross-border Health Issues

13. Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what recent discussions he has had with the National Assembly for Wales Health Secretary on cross-border health issues. [12338]

Nick Ainger: I met with the Assembly Health Minister early this month and we discussed a range of health issues.
 
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GDP Levels

14. James Duddridge: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what discussions he has had with the National Assembly for Wales Secretary for Economic Development on levels of GDP in Wales. [12339]

Nick Ainger: My right hon. Friend and I have regular discussions with Assembly Government Ministers on various issues of mutual interest, including those relating to Wales' economic performance. Gross Value Added per head in Wales in 2003, the latest year for which figures are available, was £12,629 or 79.0 per cent. of the UK average, its highest relative level for five years.

National Assembly (List Members)

Nia Griffith: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what plans he has to introduce legislation affecting the position of list members in the National Assembly for Wales. [12336]

Mr. Hain: In the White Paper the proposal is that a simple amendment should be made to the provisions in section 5 of the Government of Wales Act to prevent constituency candidates standing as list members.

Post Office

Peter Law: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what recent discussions he has had with his ministerial colleagues on the future of post offices in Wales. [12325]

Mr. Hain: I have regular discussions with Cabinet colleagues and the First Minister on a range of issues, including the post office network in Wales.

EDUCATION AND SKILLS

Adult Education (London)

Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many people are in adult education in each London borough per 1,000 population. [2481]

Phil Hope: This is a matter for the Learning and Skills Council (LSC). Mark Haysom, the Council's Chief Executive, will write to the hon. Member with the information requested and a copy of his reply will be placed in the Library.

Letter from Mark Haysom to Ms Sarah Teather, dated 14 July 2005:

I write in response to your recent Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, in which you asked how many people are in adult education in each London borough per 1,000 in population, this has been forwarded to me for a response.

I enclose a table showing the number of adults who were in some form of education funded by the LSC or by the Higher Education Funding Council in 2003/04 (the most recent figures available). Please note that the table I've enclosed shows the number of people who are resident of one of the London boroughs who are in education either in London or elsewhere. This definition has been chosen as it is the best way to make sense of a proportion based on resident population, in response to your specific request. This is not the same as the number of adults who are accessing learning in an institution within a particular borough.

 
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Headlines

Overall, figures show that 15 per cent. of the adult population in London accessed some form of education in Further Education (FE), Adult and Community Learning (ACL) or Higher Education (HE) in 2003–04. Just over half of this provision was in FE, about a third in HE with the remaining one-sixth in ACL.

 
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In addition, a further 50,000 adults in London accessed learning through Ufl and 3,000 were participating in work based learning.

The percentages by borough vary from 11 per cent. to 20 per cent. Interestingly, the boroughs with the highest proportions of adults in learning tend to be in the inner London boroughs. More than 18 per cent. of adults in Lambeth, Hackney, Islington, Newham, Waltham Forest, Haringey, Brent and Lewisham were accessing learning in 2003–04.

Number of adult learners by residence of borough

	FE	ACL	HE	Total	Population	Learners per 1,000 population
Barking and Dagenham	8,644	2,554.00	3,376.00	14,574	118,500	123
Barnet	19,177	2,931.00	14,279.00	36,387	244,500	149
Bexley	10,663	4,978.00	4,974.00	20,615	162,800	127
Brent	19,314	4,455.00	12,020.00	35,789	202,500	177
Bromley	15.667	7,592.00	8,799.00	32,058	226,500	142
Camden	13,896	4,173.00	9,112.00	27,181	166,700	163
City of London	447	213.00	530.00	1,190	7,000	170
Croydon	20,304	6,823.00	10,594.00	37,721	248,000	152
Ealing	16,336	3,442.00	14,745.00	34,523	231,800	149
Enfieid	16,473	1,488.00	9.881.00	27,842	207,800	134
Greenwich	14,610	3,994.00	7,443.00	26,047	165,600	157
Hackney	16,781	3,847.00	8,961.00	29,589	150,300	197
Hammersmith and Fulham	9,553	4,107.00	6,332.00	19,992	139,300	144
Haringey	16,704	3,078.00	10,309.00	30,091	169,100	178
Harrow	12,559	4,324.00	9,198.00	26,081	157,900	165
Havering	13,352	3,376.00	4,488.00	21.216	169,500	125
Hillingdon	11,262	4,461.00	7,335.00	23,058	183,400	126
Hounslow	13,437	4,147.00	7,572.00	25,156	159,200	158
Islington	15,254	2,681.00	8,013.00	25.948	140,300	185
Kensington and Chelsea	7,784	2,033.00	5,695.00	15,512	141,400	110
Kingston upon Thames	7,108	6,410.00	5.641.00	19,159	115,100	166
Lambeth	22,933	7,068.00	12,196.00	42,197	207,300	204
Lewisham	17.105	4,804.00	10,518.00	32,427	185,700	175
Merton	9.250	3,690.00	6,694.00	19,634	147,100	133
Newham	18,396	3.231.00	10,029.00	31,656	172,500	184
Redbridge	12,516	4,627.00	9,325.00	26,468	180,700	146
Richmond Upon Thames	10,767	5,109.00	6,655.00	22,531	138,400	163
Southwark	18.379	2,068.00	11,775.00	32,222	192,500	167
Sutton	9,104	649.00	4,774.00	14.527	133,500	109
Tower Hamlets	12,561	4,039.00	6,885.00	23,485	150,400	156
Waltham Forest	16,278	5,147.00	8,521.00	29,946	164,400	182
Wandsworth	14,322	8,375.00	10,589.00	33,286	223,100	149
Westminster, City of	12,563	3,064.00	7,516.00	23,143	182,900	127
Total	453,499	132,978.00	274,774.00	861,251	5,586,100	154

10th June 2005
Notes:
Further Education (FE) includes funded and unfunded learners in 2003/04. All resident learners aged 19 and above.
Adult and Community Learning (ACL) includes all resident learners aged 19 and above during 2003/04.
Higher Education (HE) includes all resident learners aged 19 and above in 2002/03.
The population figures relate to the number of adults aged 20 and above and are from the 2003 mid-year estimates.

Apprenticeships

Mr. Hood: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many young people she expects will be participating in apprenticeship schemes by the end of August; and if she will make a statement. [8854]

Phil Hope: This is a matter for the Learning and Skills Council. Mark Haysom, the council's chief executive, will write to my hon. Friend with this information and a copy of his reply will be placed in the House Library.

Letter from Rob Wye to Mr. Jimmy Hood, dated 20 July 2005:

I write on Mark Haysom's behalf, due to him currently being on annual leave, in response to your recent Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, which has been referred to the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) by Phil Hope, regarding how many young people we expect will be participating in apprenticeship schemes by the end of August.

The exact number participating in Apprenticeships at any one time depends on the number who start and the length of time to complete. As the length of time for completion varies with the apprenticeship framework, the number is affected by the sectoral mix of apprentices recruited.

The LSC estimates that approximately 274,000 apprentices will be in learning at the end of July 2005. The number is unlikely to change significantly in between the end of July and the end of August.

To these numbers should be added approximately 1,000, the first cohort of young pre 16 apprentices and approximately 500 on the Apprenticeships for Adult trials.

I trust this is helpful.

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